Millions Stage More Anti-Mubarak Protests On “Day Of Departure”

Millions of people have protested in Cairo and other major cities across Egypt against the country’s out-of-favor President Hosni Mubarak.

Protesters chant a variety of slogans against the Mubarak regime in Cairo’s Liberation Square, as reports flow in about fierce clashes between plainclothes police and protesters.

Protesters plan to march toward the presidential palace after the Friday Prayers, a Press TV correspondent reported. Several thousand troops have been deployed at key locations across the city.

The opposition has called Friday the ‘Day of Departure,’ saying the planned massive rally aims to force Mubarak into stepping down. Civil groups have also called for massive protests in Alexandria and Suez.

The developments come as the government continues its harsh crackdown on journalists and media to prevent news coverage of the rallies.

In a recent interview with ABC News, Mubarak said he is fed up with being president and would like to leave office but fears there will be chaos if he steps down. He denied that his government was responsible for the violence in Cairo’s Liberation Square.

Vice President Omar Suleiman on Thursday described the calls for Mubarak’s resignation as calls for chaos. Suleiman said the government has urged all parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood, to engage in national dialog.

The Muslim Brotherhood rejected the government’s offer in a statement released on Thursday.

Protesters have vowed to stand firm despite the deadly clashes that left several people dead and at least 1,500 others wounded in Cairo on Wednesday and the early hours of Thursday.

According to the United Nations, at least 300 people have so far been killed and thousands more have been injured during nationwide protests in Egypt.

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Friday that the recent developments in North Africa are the result of the “Islamic awakening, which followed the great [Islamic] Revolution of the Iranian nation.”

The Leader also described Mubarak as the “lackey of the Zionist regime [of Israel].”

Just a few months ago, Mohammed ElBaradei was paraded on the front cover of the Council On Foreign Relations (CFR) rag, Foreign Affairs, with a headline asking if he could be Egypt’s savior. What uncanny foresight, for on the second day of Egyptian protests he showed up in Cairo and was named as the negotiator of The Muslim Brotherhood. So where did he come from? It turns out from the board of an NGO run by CFR muckrakers George Soros and Zbigniew Brzezinski!